Hitting the Jackpot

Here is a Christmas story...

This Christmas we attended a party in the evening hosted by the Chiang Mai Adventist Church. The party was great fun. There was a board where people could write what they wanted to thank the Lord for, there was a beautifully done Christmas musical put on by the youth of the church, and there were games and marching.

For one of the games, everyone put some money into a small clay pot, along with some candy. This clay pot was then strung from a bamboo pole about six or seven feet up in the air. Then some of the men at the party were asked to line up and take turns swinging a huge wooden stick in an attempt to smash the pot. Each man was allowed only one swing. The first man in line was blindfolded and spun around. He immediately started walking off in the wrong direction. All the children and adults were yelling and shouting at him, and he finally stopped and took a great swing into nothing. The next man in line thought he would use a crack in the cement to find his way straight to the pot by feeling it with his toes, but after being blindfolded and spun around he too went off in a totally wrong direction and swung at nothing.

The next person in line was Robbie. We had been talking, along with our friend Gop, about the best way to get from where they were (some 20-30 feet away) to the pot, and we figured the best way would be to have a voice the person trusted telling them where to go. So I went and stood at the very end, behind where the pot was strung, and after Robbie was blindfolded and spun around, I started yelling his name. He initially started coming the right direction, but the children and adults got louder and more excited since he was doing so well. So I yelled louder, but he couldn't hear me then and started going the wrong way. When there was a lull in the noise, I yelled again and he turned. By this time, all he needed to do was turn around, take a few steps and swing. He was able to hear me tell him to turn around, and he walked in the right direction, but then he froze.

I was yelling, "SWING! HIT IT! HIT IT!," but he couldn't hear me over the noise. Finally, I think he very faintly heard me, and he raised that huge stick and swung it mightily down straight in front of him, smashing the jar to smithereens. I was so close I could feel the pieces scattering around me. Robbie hitting that jackpot was quite an experience!